Communication devices are generally either personal communication devices or shared communication devices. Personal communication devices are generally operated by a single person and communications established to such devices are typically answered only by that person. Shared communication devices, on the other hand, may operated by, and communications established to such devices may be answered by, any authorized person within the vicinity of the device.
An example of a shared communication device is a household landline telephone. An example of a personal communication device is a mobile telephone.
Take, by way of example, a typical scenario of a family household, having a shared landline telephone available for use by all members of the family. Each member of the family may make calls therefrom and answer calls made thereto if they are suitably available. As is also common nowadays, some or all of the members of the family may also have a personal communication device such as a mobile telephone.
Despite the fact that most or every family member may have a mobile telephone, it is in many cases desirable to call a family member on the shared family phone rather than via that family member's mobile telephone. This desire may be due for a number of reasons. For example, calls made to landline telephones may be considerably cheaper than calls made to mobile telephones. Additionally, from a social point of view, a caller may have a desire to speak to someone of the household, without having a specific desire to speak to anyone in particular. A caller may also wish to speak to more than one family member during the same telephone call.
Currently, however, a caller calling a shared telephone has no way of knowing who is available at that shared device. Generally, the best a caller can do is to use some personal knowledge, such as by knowing at what times different family members are likely to be present, and applying that knowledge to determine whether the desired person is likely to be available at the shared device. However, such an approach is somewhat unsatisfactory.
Accordingly, one aim of the present invention is to overcome, or at least alleviate, at least some of the above-mentioned problems.